May loses third minister
Damian Green was ordered to resign as First Secretary of State after a Cabinet Office investigation found he had misled the British public and MPs over what he knew about pornography found on an office computer.
The British Prime Minister’s de facto deputy and closest ally was told to resign by Theresa May after she told him his conduct had breached the ministerial code of conduct and “fallen short” of the behaviour expected of ministers.
He is the third Cabinet minister to be forced from office in the past two months and means that May ends the year with another crisis after she had appeared to turn around her fortunes with success in the Brexit talks.
A seven-week inquiry, originally launched after a complaint of inappropriate behaviour towards women, found that he had misled the public in statements he made last month denying that the police had told him about the material being found in a raid on his office in 2008. In fact, the police had raised it with his solicitor in 2008 and with him in 2013.
May was handed the report on Tuesday, and passed it to Sir Alex Allan, her independent adviser on ministerial standards, who agreed with its findings. She told Green to resign yesterday, and is not expected to replace him immediately.
Green’s demise is the result of a decade-long feud with former Metropolitan Police officers, whose former officers leaked details of the raid in recent weeks after the Cabinet Office originally started investigating his behaviour towards women.
Sue Gray, the Cabinet Office official who investigated Green’s behaviour, did not present the Prime Minister with any conclusions about whether Green had behaved inappropriately towards writer Kate Maltby, whose complaint triggered the inquiry, or whether he had ever viewed or downloaded pornography at work.
MPs will not now have a chance to grill May until January 8, when MPs return from their Christmas break.
Green, 61, said: “I regret that I’ve been asked to resign from the Government.” He had claimed on November 4 that no pornography had been found on his work computers, then on November 11 he said no allegations about improper material being found on his computers “have ever been put to me”.